Beyond the Magic: Disney as Art and Culture
For over 100 years, the Walt Disney Company has shaped the experience of childhood in America and around the globe. For generations we have "grown up" Disney; the movies and television series we watched as children, our time spent at Disney theme parks, and our oversaturation in Disney merchandise, all, for better or worse, have shaped how we understand ourselves and the world around us. At the same time, Disney, as an entity, has changed to fit the times, and looking through the history of Disney reveals to us great shifts in mindset, as well as lapses in judgment. In this course, we will analyze how Disney has both been a repository for and an arbiter of broader cultural and social issues. We will look at both the problematic and positive elements of Disney's media landscape with regard to social and political content, both with regard to the period of their making and for contemporary consumers. We will think about how Disney has influenced our art and our culture and what it means to be a global citizen in the Disney world of today.
Recommended Titles
Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children's Films by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780313376733Publication Date: 2009-11-01
Fan Phenomena: Star Wars by
In October 2012, the Walt Disney Company paid more than $4 billion to acquire Lucasfilms, the film and production company responsible for Howard the Duck.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781783200979Publication Date: 2013-01-01
The Idea of Nature in Disney Animation by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781409479383Publication Date: 2012-06-22
Myth, Media, and Culture in Star Wars by
In 1977, Star Wars blazed across the screen to become one of the highest grossing and most beloved movies of all time. It was followed by two sequels and three prequels, all of which became blockbusters. Comic books, novels, graphic novels, and magazines devoted to the films have added to the mythology of George Lucas's creation. Despite the impact of the franchise on popular culture, however, discussion of the films from a scholarly perspective has not kept pace with the films. In Myth, Media, and Culture in Star Wars: An Anthology, Douglas Brode and Leah Deyneka have assembled an intriguing collection of essays addressing the influences that shaped the films, as well as the impact the franchise has had on popular culture. Contributors to this volume discuss the Star Wars universe and what its connection to various cultural touchstones--from fairy tales and Joseph Campbell to Disneyland and Marvel comics--mean to viewers. Essays examine the films in the franchise as well as incarnations of the Star Wars universe in video games, comic books, and television programs, including the films' influence on new generations of filmmakers. A companion volume to Sex, Politics, and Culture in Star Wars, Myth, Media, and Culture in Star Wars is a diverse collection of criticism that investigates the dynamic force that Star Wars has become in popular culture, from every imaginable angle.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780810885134Publication Date: 2012-06-01
Pixar's Boy Stories by
Since Toy Story, its first feature in 1995, Pixar Animation Studios has produced a string of commercial and critical successes including Monsters, Inc.; WALL-E; Finding Nemo; The Incredibles; Cars; and Up. In nearly all of these films, male characters are prominently featured, usually as protagonists. Despite obvious surface differences, these figures often follow similar narratives toward domestic fulfillment and civic engagement. However, these characters are also hypermasculine types whose paths lead to postmodern social roles more revelatory of the current "crisis" that sociologists and others have noted in boy culture. In Pixar's Boy Stories: Masculinity in a Postmodern Age, Shannon R. Wooden and Ken Gillam examine how boys become men and how men measure up in films produced by the animation giant. Offering counterintuitive readings of boy culture, this book describes how the films quietly but forcefully reiterate traditional masculine norms in terms of what they praise and what they condemn. Whether toys or ants, monsters or cars, Pixar's males succeed or fail according to the "boy code," the relentlessly policed gender standards rampant in American boyhood. Structured thematically around major issues in contemporary boy culture, the book discusses conformity, hypermasculinity, social hierarchies, disability, bullying, and an implicit critique of postmodern parenting. Unprecedented in its focus on Pixar and boys in its films, this book offers a valuable perspective to current conversations about gender and cinema. Providing a critical discourse about masculine roles in animated features, Pixar's Boy Stories will be of interest to scholars of film, media, and gender studies and to parents.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781442275652Publication Date: 2016-08-04
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